Art in the Boutique

John B.

Art in the Boutique is an exhibit by Dawn Di Cicco. Ms. Di Cicco was born in 1958 and grew up at the Jersey Shore. She developed a passion for art and music. She draws portraits of her favorite musicians. She has a bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Arizona where she also studied graphic design.

   Dawn worked as a graphic designer for American West magazine in Tucson, and advertising agencies in Philadelphia, New York City and New Jersey.

   After raising her family, Dawn decided to take a class in Abstract Expressionist Painting which stresses the personal expression of the painter through the use of shape, color, line and texture, in non-representational form. Dawn found that through Abstract Expressionist painting she was liberated from the precision that Realism demanded. Abstract painting better suited her admitted, unfocused consciousness. Music inspired Dawn to put brush and paint to canvas resulting in works that manifest her love for music and art in a non-representational form. Dawn’s ability to once again integrate art and music added to the excitement of discovering abstract painting.

   Dawn says she takes possession of every writer and musician, alive or dead and imprisons them in her self-consciousness. She then realizes them onto the canvas in the form of a word, a color, a scrap of newspaper, a rusted bottle cap, a borrowed lyric from a song, a ragged swath of black paint swiped across the canvas. She uses texture, direction, depth and color to convey playfulness, passion, violence, love or peace.

  

   Ms Di Cicco’s painting, “Beach Comber” is an acrylic on canvas piece that is largely composed of different shades of brown. One can imagine a brick wall or unfinished ancient adobe structure. In the background, an amorphous light brown column floats unconnected to anything else in the painting. My interest is peaked as to the methodology Dawn employed as a means for creating such a cacrophonious mileage that crowds the canvas. It is the work of a complex mind. One can imagine a brick wall or unfinished ancient adobe structure. In the background an amorphous light brown edifices floats unconnected to anything else in the painting. It only further accentuates the complexity of the work.

   “Falling Lakes” looks like a pre-historic cave dweller’s art. She does some interesting things with different shades of brown. The painting is an enigma. One does not need to stretch their imagination very far to imagine a Rorschach test. Wilting Tulips are another image that comes to mind. It is a complex painting that required a level of artistic ability. It also draws one’s attention as a puzzle that demands a solution. It is multi-layered, and open to many interpretations. One could describe it as minimalist, but that does not do justice to the dizzying array of layers that assault the viewer on first inspection.

Puzzled is an apt title for the painting of Ms. Cicco by that name. It appears to be a scorpion or a crab that spans the length of the canvas in Ms. DiCicco’s signature brown. A mangled tail drapes beneath the body of the work that fades off into a smeared brown with grayish white overtones.  Gray is also the color of a perfect square that supports the main image of the work.

It is an acrylic on canvas piece that took an artist with ability some time to create. 

   I had to engage in some study on how to appraise abstract art before reviewing this show. It is not what I had previously considered value laden art. The artist represented in our current show are trained professional artist who possess a degree of aesthetic skill. Their ability grows on me slowly.